Gove says no one has responded with more grace and commitment (or something like that) to #windrush than Amber - but that is not true. Less than a fortnight ago she had done nothing at all (at least publicly) to show this was an issue she was worried about
A fortnight ago the guardian had already published many detailed accounts of people made homeless, sent to detention centres, sacked from jobs, unable to visit dying parents, refused benefits, asked to pay for NHS treatment - I think around 10 already printed
I’m sure Rudd must have been very busy think about Brexit - and that’s part of the problem. She may not have been reading the Guardian that regularly. But what about her staff? Couldn’t they have flagged it as important?
I know the government wasn’t worried about this 2 weeks ago today because I had to call out of hours downing st press office on sat 14 evening to get a comment on the disappointment of Caribbean diplomats that no 10 refused meeting with PM on this
No 10 duty press office called back on Sunday 15th lunchtime to confirm that the CHOGM meeting request from commonwealth heads of government on this had been refused.
So it is wrong for the government to say that they acted to deal with the (what they are now belatedly calling) “heartrending” #windrush cases as soon as they came to officials’ attention. I think they waited for 6 months before acting
And all that time #windrush people were still (and are still) living on streets because evicted, getting further into debt, not getting cancer treatment, not being allowed to do the jobs they loved, wasting their lives trying to prove they are here legally - which they are
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